Socioeconomic Transformation and Democratisation

Project duration: 2022

Staff: 

• Prof Pamela Abbott, Dr Andrea Teti, Dr Ilia Xypolia, University of Aberdeen 

Funder:

• Scottish Higher Education Funding Council

Partners:

• School of Social Science, University of Aberdeen

Project Summary

Globally, public opinion polls have shown that most people agree that democracy is the best form of government despite its faults.  However, democracy is a complex concept with a range of meanings, and surveys are blunt instruments for understanding people’s political attitudes and values. Researchers’ ways of framing political debates, most frequently based on liberal definitions of democracy and human rights, may not be congruent with respondents’ understandings. There are few studies of everyday understandings of democracy and related civic, political, social, and economic rights. To carry out such research requires theoretical and methodological innovation to provide a conceptual framework for research. 

Pilot research was carried out in Tunisia, which provided a paradigmatic case of mismatched conceptions.  Western Governments, commentators, and most scholars consider that, following the Uprising in 2011, Tunisia has transitioned to democracy, a judgement with which most Tunisians disagree. In public opinion polls since 2011, Tunisians have consistently said that they want democracy but that their country is not one. The research will explore Tunisians’ understandings of democracy and associated civil/political and social/economic rights. Participants spoke for themselves, explaining their political attitudes, values and goals on their terms and how they justify them, how they think about political institutions’ performance, their understanding of the political transformation their country has undergone, why they have the political priorities that they do; and the meaning they give to their own political behaviour. We used cognitive and qualitative interviewing. Cognitive interviewing enabled us to understand how Tunisians think politically, to establish the logic behind the answers selected on public opinion surveys. The narrative interview transcripts  were analysed using critical discourse analysis to understand political and cultural regularities in participants’ accounts and make visible important debates, conflicts, and genuine ambivalence in political attitudes and values held by and between individuals in their everyday lives understanding of democracy. By speaking to the shortcomings of surveys, we uncovered perspectives and theoretical frameworks that researchers embedded within the assumptions of existing paradigms have not previously conceived.

Project duration: 2014-2016

Staff:

• Andrea Teti
• Pamela Abbott
• Adam Fletcher
• Gabi Lipan
• Kathryn Vincent
• Vera Lomazzi
• Cristian Luguzan
• Gillian Kennedy
• Roger Sapsford
• Viola Sarnelli
• Gerasimos Tsourapas
• Ilia Xypolia
• Saerom Han
• Sarah Hynek
• Mustafa Khedewi

Funder: European Commission

Partners:

• University of Aberdeen
• Analisi Sociologicos Economicos y Politicos (ASEP)
• Concluzia Prim: Centre for Survey Methodology
• Dublin City University
• Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI)
• University of Graz
• Applied Social Science Forum - ASSF
• Centre De Rechereche en Economie Appliquee pour le Development (CREAD)
• Baseera - Egyptian Centre of Public Opinion Research
• Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS)
• MEDA Solutions
• University of Jordan

Project summary: 

The Arab Transformations project investigates the root causes of the Arab Uprisings, which became popularly known as the ‘Arab Spring’.

It analyses the economic, social, and political changes in Arab MENA countries directly after this radical period of change and explores the outlook for the region.

Based on large-scale cross-national surveys in North Africa, Jordan, and Iraq asking 85 questions and collecting nearly 300 variables, the Project explores respondents’ opinions across a broad range of topics. These include:

• EU/MENA Relations
• Security
• Quality of Life
• Gender
• Social Media and Youth
• Corruption
• Migration
• Politics and Relgion
• Trust
• Drivers of Uprisings 

The Project offers country by country analysis across these themes, for Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Algeria and Jordan.

Project duration: 2020 - 2022

Staff: 

• Prof Muhamad Azizul Islam; Prof Pamela Abbott; Dr Shamima Haque, University of Aberdeen 

Funder:

• Scottish Higher Education Funding Council

Partners:

• Business School, University of Aberdeen

Project Summary

A research team led by the University of Aberdeen, in collaboration with University of Dhaka and Traidcraft Exchange, undertook a project to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women workers in the garment industry in Bangladesh.

The project’s ultimate aim is to provide practical recommendations for the governments and the garment industry in Bangladesh, in the UK and globally, to ensure that factories in Bangladesh are gender-friendly workplaces; that the terms and conditions of employment meet international standards and garment factory workers no longer face exploitative practices.
 

Project duration: 3 years

Staff: 

• Dr Dickson Malunda, IPAR
• Prof Pamela Abbott; University of Aberdeen
• Will Paxton, Kivu International

Funder:

• International Research Development Centre (IDRC)

Partners:

• Institute for Policy Analysis and Research, Rwanda
• Kivu International

Project Summary

This project aims to facilitate evidence-based decision-making to provide appropriate socio-economic responses to the COVID-19 outbreak in Rwanda. Over a period of three years, the project will collect data on a set of 10,000 vulnerable households and 4,500 micro-, small-, and medium-sized businesses.

The goal is to gather instantaneous and ready-to-use information on the socio-economic and labour market impacts of COVID-19. The information will be disseminated to decision-makers and other stakeholders and will provide the basis for the development of policy options for the Government of Rwanda to respond to challenges faced by businesses and households. The project will also reinforce the capacities of researchers in Rwanda.

Outputs

1. IPAR-Rwanda (2023) 'Providing Timely Evidence to Facilitate the Socio-economic Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic in Rwanda: A Business Deliberative Forum' [Report], IPAR-Rwanda. Available here (Accessed 29th May 2024).

Project duration: 2019

Staff: 

• Prof Pamela Abbott, Dr Lucia D’Ambruoso, University of Aberdeen
• Will Paxton, Kivu International

Funder:

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Global Ideas Fund at CAF America

Partners:

• Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC)
• Kivu International

Project Summary

This case study explores drivers of change under a Labour government 1997-2010 and the subsequent Conservative governments post 2010 in policies for reducing child poverty and in the funding of early childhood education and care.

While in opposition, the Labour party developed close relationships with academics and anti-poverty advocacy groups, and they continued to work with the party in government, drawing on the role of early child education and care in child development and in enabling all children to reach their full potential. While some policies continued under the subsequent Conservative/Liberal coalition and Conservative led governments, some policy measures were halted, despite being popular, showing that policy change needs support from a sufficiently powerful coalition of voters and interest groups to be sustained.